Cyber Workforce Numbers Rise for Larger Organizations

Larger organizations in particular have strengthened their cyber workforce this year: On average, organizations with more than $1 billion in revenue had one cyber professional per 1,086 employees.

That's according to Wavestone's "Cyber Benchmark 2024" report, which found that number to be a 15% increase compared with 2023, when these same companies had one cyber expert per 1,285 employees.

However, the companies at the top of their game when it comes to cultivating a booming cyber workforce within their own organization are financial businesses, which, on average, have one cyber expert per 267 employees. Industrial groups fall far behind, with an average of one cyber expert per 1,390 employees.

"This is a very positive sign that large enterprises have acknowledged the need for a strong cyber workforce," Wavestone partner Germone Billois said when discussing the rise of large companies adding to their cyber defenses. "More and more companies have launched initiatives to ensure talent retention."

Aside from the workforce data, the report published findings that the overall cyber readiness level of surveyed organizations reached 53%, with some of them reaching highs of 80% to 90% cyber-maturity levels. Budgets have stabilized at an average of 6.6% of IT budgets in all sectors, and organizations' cloud security and data security programs made noticeable progress in maturity development, rising 5% and 4%, respectively, compared with 2023.

Though there has been notable progress made within organizations compared to years prior, companies still struggle in certain areas, such as third-party security and industrial system security (ICS), which have average maturity levels of 48.9% and 39.9%, respectively. 

Don't miss the latest Dark Reading Confidential podcast, where we talk to two ransomware negotiators about how they interact with cybercriminals: including how they brokered a deal to restore operations in a hospital NICU where lives were at stake; and how they helped a church, where the attackers themselves "got a little religion." Listen now!